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Furniture factory gutted in Sharjah

SHARJAH — A fire broke out yesterday in Al Ayoun Furniture Factory and spread to its adjacent warehouse in Sharjah Industrial area No 17.

No casualties were reported.

However, many wooden logs, paper cartons, and stocks of pre-fabricated furniture were gutted.

The fire broke out at 10.30am when all the workers were busy in their carpentry work at the factory and its warehouse.

But alerted in time, none of the workers was injured as they evacuated the premises as soon as the fire started.

Officers from the Sharjah Civil Defence and police units rushed to the site following a call received by the Sharjah Police Operations Room and started evacuating the whole area.

It took over two and half hours to douse the flames. The operation was supervised by Colonel Garaib Shaban, Director of the Sharjah Civil Defence.

Fire fighting units from Ajman and Dubai also joined the fire operation later and helped in containing the fire.

The factory waste, which included sawdust and paper, stoked the flames, which spread rapidly to the neighbouring warehouse.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Col. Garaib Shaban said that most of the warehouse and companies owners in the industrial area do not comply with the prescribed safety rules and regulation, or even the specific fire protection code.

This negligence usually leads to huge loss and even casualties when such fire or other equally tragic incidents occur.

The Pakistani owner of Al Ayoun furniture factory, who instructed his 40 labourers to help the civil defence personnel in controlling the fire, said his factory was not insured and therefore he will have to bear all the financial loss.

"The inspectors of the civil defence only two days ago visited to inspect his factory and the warehouse, and had instructed us to add more fire extinguishers to enhance the fire protection system. We immediately acted upon their instruction, but despite enhancing our fire safety measures, we had this fire incident."

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